Tamiya 1/32 Scale South African Airforce Spitfire XVI e

This aircraft was stationed at AFB Langebaanweg Air Operations School in South Africa circa 1953.It was flown by 1 Squadron and was used to train aircrew going to fight in Korea in F 51 D Mustangs.

This is another of those great Tamiya 1/32 scale kits that I love raving about, I built this Spitfire about 4 Months ago, once again I painted the model with three types of Alclad Paints, Airframe Aluminium, Semi Matt Aluminium and Polished Aluminium with a Alclad Gloss Vanish, I used a base coat of Tamiya Gloss Black. I kept the Rudder, ailerons and elevators Matt, as they were covered in fabric.

I have added a News Paper clipping from that period mentioning some of the crashes that took place during training, hope you can read it, the print is rather small.

You’re a busy man, Marc, where do you put all these 1/32 models? Anyway, I can’t comment on whether this is the most beautiful version of the Spitfire, but it’s certainly very attractive in this colour scheme, good job!

Nice work Marc, always enjoy a nice Spit, I really like the bubble top canopy’s on these better than the original style. I know I’ll probably hear from the Spitfire purist on that, but “hey”, Morne is the one who said it was the “most beautiful version” !, So go pick on him first !

Thanks again Bernd, my friend Tappie and myself go through what we call the Zone, where we can build through the night, chat and talk History and laugh mostly, its great to have a friend that has the same interests. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Halvar, the decals for the South African post war Spitfires can be ordered from Alley Cat decals, if you would like some, give me a shout and I will post you some, no problem. Thanks for the comment. Cheers

Blood sweat and glue. It takes a lot to build such a beauty. One day I hope to build as neat and clean, weathering aside. Hours of sanding out pin marks, reshaping and fitting of parts, the list goes on. Great job buddy.

Lovely work! When were they painted that overall grey colour I wonder? The bubble top was such an improvement in cockpit vis, was actually test flown quite early in the war, but only put into production towards the end. The clean straight un-stepped fuselage line of the bubble top I think, makes the Spitfire even more beautiful, if that were possible!

Hi James, most of the Spitfires at Langebaanweg in the Cape were painted Dark Sea Grey top and Medium Sea Grey bottom, I came across a few rare pictures of this natural metal finish Spitfire 5483 from 1 Squadron, during 1953 at Langebaanweg.
Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it, Marc.